Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Département Ecologie, Physiologie et Ethologie, Strasbourg 67000, France.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2013 Apr 8;368(1618):20120342. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2012.0342. Print 2013 May 19.
The evolutionary study of social systems in non-human primates has long been focused on ecological determinants. The predictive value of socio-ecological models remains quite low, however, in particular because such equilibrium models cannot integrate the course of history. The use of phylogenetic methods indicates that many patterns of primate societies have been conserved throughout evolutionary history. For example, the study of social relations in macaques revealed that their social systems are made of sets of correlated behavioural traits. Some macaque species are portrayed by marked social intolerance, a steep dominance gradient and strong nepotism, whereas others display a higher level of social tolerance, relaxed dominance and a weaker influence of kinship. Linkages between behavioural traits occur at different levels of organization, and act as constraints that limit evolutionary responses to external pressures. Whereas these constraints can exert strong stabilizing selection that opposes the potential changes required by the ecological environment, selective mechanisms may have the potential to switch the whole social system from one state to another by acting primarily on some key behavioural traits that could work as pacemakers.
长期以来，非人类灵长类动物社会系统的进化研究一直侧重于生态决定因素。然而，社会生态模型的预测价值仍然相当低，特别是因为这种平衡模型无法整合历史进程。系统发育方法的使用表明，灵长类动物社会的许多模式在进化历史中一直得以保留。例如，对猕猴社会关系的研究表明，它们的社会系统由一系列相关的行为特征构成。一些猕猴物种表现出明显的社会不容忍、陡峭的统治梯度和强烈的亲缘关系，而另一些物种则表现出更高水平的社会容忍度、宽松的统治和亲缘关系的影响较弱。行为特征之间的联系发生在不同的组织层次上，并作为限制因素，限制了对外部压力的进化反应。虽然这些限制因素可能会产生强烈的稳定选择，反对生态环境所需的潜在变化，但选择机制可能有潜力通过主要作用于一些关键的行为特征来使整个社会系统从一种状态切换到另一种状态，这些行为特征可以作为起搏器。
